Yemen’s General Investment Authority recently signed a contract with the United Company for Petroleum Investment (UCPI) for the construction and operation of an $895 million oil refinery in Mukalla, in the southeastern province of Hadramaut, the official SABA news agency reported.

With the capacity to process 110,000 barrels per day (bpd), the plant is expected to reduce Yemen’s dependence on refined oil imports, according to the Authority’s Chairman Abdulkarim Mutair. The project is also designed to provide electricity to the province’s residents.

The UCPI consortium includes the Al-Kuthairi Group of the United Arab Emirates (UAE) and the China Petroleum Engineering Corporation. UCPI targets China as the main export market for the refinery's products, according to the American Energy Information Administration, EIA.

Yemen produced 480,000 bpd of oil in 2001, up from 440,000 bpd in 2000, 80 percent of which are imported. Oil revenues jumped 40 percent last year to an estimated $1.4 billion. With oil being the country's main source of revenue, the government now seeks to increase its oil output to one million bpd. Proven oil reserves in Yemen presently amount to four billion barrels.

Two refineries currently operate in the republic, one in the in the central province of Maareb, with a refining capacity of 10,000 bpd, and the other in the southern port city of Aden, producing 120,000 bpd. — (menareport.com)